mr. chairman , i thank the chairman and i thank the gentleman from michigan ( mr. kildee ) xz4002160 for taking this amendment to this point . 
just in response to the gentleman 's comments a second ago and earlier , the reason for this amendment is that current law takes care of any state that wants to put a higher proportion of funds towards out-of-school youth . 
it has the flexibility for that . 
and if they want to move in that direction , they can . 
it also allows states like massachusetts , and at least 17 others , who have a greater need to serve in-school youth for job training purposes , to use their money for that . 
what the h.r. 27 bill does is it takes away that flexibility and harms at least 27 states from being able to help the people that they want while it solves a problem that does not exist for the others . 
the others already can , in fact , serve as many of the people they want out of school . 
with respect to this money that is a duplication for it because there are other funds going , none of those other programs have money left over for job training . 
they are already used up . 
most of them are underfunded : safe and drug-free schools being slashed by the president . 
title i , underfunded . 
you can go right on down the line . 
so i hope my colleagues look at this and do not disadvantage those states that need to have the flexibility to serve more in-school youth , and at the same time realize that this amendment harms those who need more out-of-school youth served in no way at all . 
